Against all odds, this week’s hottest story involves Reddit, GameStop, Robinhood and even meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin. It’s the kind of once-in-a-lifetime news that slowly brewed from the depths of the WallStreetBets subreddit and one that even prompted Jon Stewart to share his thoughts on such improbable events.
It only started a few days ago when the WallStreetBets group started driving up the price of GameStop’s stock after noticing several hedge funds were betting heavily on the shares’ price falling. Since then, GameStop’s stock has gone from around $20 per share to over $340 at its peak, with the Reddit day traders also deploying the same strategy to pump the price of other ailing businesses like AMC Theatres, Nokia, clothing retailer Express and even Blockbuster video.
As Reddit traders continue to wreak havoc among Wall Street funds and traditional finance, yesterday Jon Stewart took the time to finally open a Twitter account in order to voice his thoughts on the matter. Stewart is by no means a fan of Wall Street, as he often reminded viewers when he hosted The Daily Show, especially around the time the Occupy Wall Street protests were unfolding in 2011.
Stewart strongly condemned the actions taken by several Wall Street firms and even the Robinhood app -a go-to option for small individual investors- after they delisted or started blocking them from buying the controversial shares in order to generate sell pressure that would again lower the price. The way Stewart and many other politicians and prominent figures see it, the WallStreetBets gang’s actions are no different from the usual business investors and traders engage in all the time.
The true fallout from the WallStreetBets affair is yet to be seen, but already the likes of Robinhood are already facing backlash and legal threats, after the company outright blocked trading activity for GameStop and other stocks, as well as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, after the Shiba Inu-themed Dogecoin soared nearly 1,000% in the past 24 hours. The move clearly favors traditional finance, whose world was suddenly rocked by thousands of savvy Redditors playing the same game, under the same rules.
Though WallStreetBets briefly went down and even got banned from Discord, the community’s efforts are already being felt across the nation, as even New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went live on Twitch to debate on the stock market’s current state. Meanwhile, the war between Reddit Main Street traders and Wall Street veterans rages on.
Source: @jon_actual|Twitter